Many modern day service industry restaurants, diners, cafes, and bars are typically setup with waiters, waitresses, bartenders and of the such to provide service for the Patrons. In these establishments the need for service for the Patrons is not always noticed right away by the servers and waitstaff. On some occasions a Patron may have to catch a server's attention by verbal signals such as whistling, speaking loudly, or tapping glasses, or even hand signals physically motioning a server's attention and the like. While these techniques are well known, the signaling techniques can be time consuming and/or frustrating for the patrons, as well as potentially disruptive to other patrons.
More elaborate devices have been proposed over the years to help with notifying servers. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,115 to Goor et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,409 to Shank; U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,196 to Green; U.S. Pat. No. 8,548,856 to Maruszak; and 2006/0279415 to Solheim. However, these devices require power supplies to operate and be an expensive supply for food service establishments that work on tight budgets.
Other more mechanical devices have been proposed such as using table top flags or placards. However, these loose devices can easily be dropped from the tabletops and not used over time.
Thus, the need exists for a simple and effective server notification device, etc. over the prior art.